The outside of number 29 Garville Avenue in Rathgar, with its detailed door surround and shining four-pane sash windows, signals something special within the two-storey Victorian redbrick. And indeed readers of interiors magazines might recognise the award-winning design by Ash Wilson, which won the Living Space — Europe category in the 2020 International Design and Architectural awards. Number 29 is located about two-thirds along the tree-lined road that connects Rathgar Road and Rathgar Avenue, with a mix of period homes in pairs and terraces set well back from it.
The owners have lived here since 2009, when they renovated the house — “a labour of love” — and built a wide, bright L-shaped kitchen and playroom across the back, designed by architect Pat Kerr, then of Brazil Associates. Ten years later, with a larger family, they engaged Wilson to reconfigure the internal space according to their changing needs; she opened it up to integrate the playroom with the L, changed the glazing, enlarged the rooflights, added a quietly dramatic gas fire and planned the kitchen, which was built by Jonathan Williams.
As well as these big things, her award-winning design also involved tweaks and touches that make it all sit together seamlessly: chunky door handles, herringbone floors by the Hardwood Floor Company, and light fittings that, as she puts it, “celebrate the curve” of the kitchen roof rather than competing with it.
There’s drama, too, in the colours; in the rear reception room, the inky blue walls, bookcases and ceiling, about 12ft above, set off the fine plasterwork which is in fine condition given the house dates from 1860. The interconnecting reception rooms, with the front room painted a bone white colour, make a good party space, with their restrained furniture and grand fireplaces (the house is Ber-exempt) benefiting from an integrated sound system.
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The rear room, which leads on to the kitchen through substantial glass doors framed by the original architraves and shutters, is a cosy retreat; the front room overlooks the front garden through a bay window.
Off the hall is a cloakroom that used to be a bathroom but now swallows all the coats, bags and shoes on the way to the kitchen. And behind it, replacing the old lean-to, are a smartly fitted and mosaic-floored guest toilet and utility room, which has great attic storage. A door opens from here to the side passage; go left for the insulated garage, now fitted out as a gym and den, or go right for the garden.
Out here a wide patio wraps around the L, with a dining table — reflecting that inside the large picture window — and a sofa positioned for the sun; the square-ish southwesterly garden, 68ft long, is mostly in grass with a play area at the end shaded by birch trees and a giant ash.
Looking back at the extension and coming in through the large sliding doors to the living area, it’s easier to appreciate the curving roofline that sails above the island, where the brassware lends subtle, cool modernity and the wooden units and glass-fronted pantry press are offset by a Calacatta marble splashback under one of two deep lightwells.
A bedroom currently used as a study, with lovely ribbed obscure glass panels in the double doors, occupies the extended upstairs and there’s a horizontal slot of window from which when sitting you can take in the treetops, or when standing you can admire the undulations of the zinc-clad kitchen roof.
Two double bedrooms face the front and two, including the main one, are at the back; most have unobtrusive fitted wardrobes and very appealing fireplaces. The sensitive refurbishment also added rooflights to the double-pitched roof to draw light from north and south.
This finely tuned family home, with 260 sq m (2,800 sq ft) of well-thought-out space, is beautifully set for another family — the owners describe the road as very neighbourly, and since 2015 only four houses appear to have sold. Number 29 is on the market through Mullery O’Gara with an asking price of €2.25 million.
